I want to applaud, commend, and give my heart felt admiration to four of the Bladen County Commissioners in standing up and doing their job in defending the Bladen County Taxpayers. They are Mr. Charles Ray Peterson, Mr. Daniel Dowless, Ms. Ashley Trivette, and Mr. David Gooden. They showed integrity, leadership, fiscal responsibility, and respect for the tax paying citizens by voting against a nearly $1500 photo shoot of themselves (and their ego).
As far as the other commissioners, who should remain nameless (but if their vanity is so large… Cogdell, Bullock, Britt, Priest, and Munn-Goins) they should be ashamed of themselves for wasting tax payer’s money on such meaningless projects when so many other areas need to be addressed. Many of them just attended a Democratic Party Executive Committee to stress the importance of: education, jobs, healthcare, and people’s rights……… What hypocrites!!!!!!!
Our schools, children’s health, healthcare rank near the bottom of all counties in North Carolina. Our children and others must leave Bladen to get any jobs and they complain about people’s rights. the last meeting they even talked about staff cutbacks in our schools as well as other areas. Top decision was for a picture of themselves (Movie stars each and every one)!!!! Don’t forget to order extra copies in case you want us to help you send out Christmas cards.
JUST A FEW STATISTICS ON WAYS $1500.00 CAN BE USED
1. A hungry school child can be fed for over 1 year for $1500.00
2. A family of four can be fed for $640/ month – that’s over 2 months of food for someone in need.
3. Soup kitchens can feed the hungry for $2.50/meal – over 600 meals for a starving person!!
4. Housing for a homeless person $600.00/month!
5. Enough supplies for a teacher for 1 year for the entire class student body.
6. Average college student books for one year $1200!!
7. State College tuition is about $800.00/year – HOW ABOUT A PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIP
8. Seniors pay about $800/month for prescriptions. Etc. etc. etc.
I’m also angry at myself for believing and even supporting some of these guys in the past. I thought they would be for the tax payers, but I see they are for themselves and seem to be controlled by other things besides worrying about the people of Bladen County.
I’m not a political watchdog and feel I am a rational person, but some things are just not right when so many people in the county are suffering. If someone can explain and defend how a photo is more important than a hungry child’s life, I will be happy to retract and apologize to the “FLAMING 5”. But until then I want to show my support for the “FABULOUS 4.”
Larry Yoder Bladen County resident and tax payer
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